Justified fun has been made of the “No Labels” contingent, a collection of Palinophobes clutching PBS tote bags, those not quite at ease with both major parties, but who tilt more or less to the left. At their premier event, Byron York took note of cultural signposts: No national anthem. No flags and no eagles. Worst of all, when it came to the sandwiches, attendees wolfed down the veggies and chicken, and left the roast beef alone.
This is a bad sign for a political movement, which needs its red meat and the people who eat it.
The best politicians have been happy warriors. Parties need warriors. But this on the other hand is a “party” of therapists, a “civility” drive by people who shower abuse on those they disfavor, a self-esteem movement in search of a crisis they can take charge of dispelling.
They claim the system is broken, when in fact it is working quite nicely. They imagine a crisis when one isn’t there.
Just to prove their bad timing, if not their bad judgment, they timed their debut at the exact moment when the Democrats and the Republicans defied the more radical wings of their parties to pass a big tax bill — including extending tax cuts, and a stimulus — on which the centermost arms of both factions agreed.
At the same time, the “correct” mechanism built into the system had started to click into gear. For the past several years, there had been a crisis (which the No Labels crowd hadn’t noticed) when the duly elected arms of the government commenced to triple the deficit, and propose and pass legislation that most of the country disliked.
Protests erupted, and they went ahead anyhow. Polls for Congress and the presidents nosedived, and they went ahead anyhow.
Three big elections warned them to stop, and they went ahead anyhow. Finally, a huge election on November 2 curtailed their power to do much of anything, and the winners, in the House and state houses, announced their intention to repeal or dismantle as much of the past year’s work as they could.
At the same time, the courts, at the instigation of almost half of the states, started to move against the health care legislation that was so deeply disliked by so much of the country. Oddly enough, the No Labels crowd, which had not uttered a peep when the crisis was happening, are bothered to no end by the attempts to correct it, and most of all by the Tea Party, which they consider uncouth.
Aside from the fact that their timing is odd, the people they tout are under-inspiring, being the hapless, the helpless, the feckless, and the over-entitled, at least in their own tiny minds: Sens. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, Bob Inglis, R-S.C., and Mike Castle, R-Del., who were dumped by their own party; Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., who was broken in half by his party; Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Pa., who flipped when he was about to be creamed by Sen.-elect Pat Toomey, R-Pa., and ended up being creamed instead by Rep. Joe Sestak, D-Pa.; Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, the pork queen who was given her seat in the Senate by Daddy; and Gov. Charlie Crist, R-Fla., the pathetic hack who turned “independent” when he trailed the Republican, and then, according to Kendrick Meek, had a near nervous breakdown, stalking him at a campaign event, and tearfully begging the Democrat to drop out of the race in his favor.
To paraphrase our president, these are the people for whom no one is waiting. Pin on your label, and pass the roast beef.
Examiner Columnist Noemie Emery is contributing editor to The Weekly Standard and author of “Great Expectations: The Troubled Lives of Political Families.”
